Collateral Damage - A Sudden Detour Part II

Posted on Thu 30th Apr, 2020 @ 11:07pm by Lieutenant Elliot Jericho & Lieutenant Commander Kiara Lena
Edited on on Sun 9th Aug, 2020 @ 11:14pm

1,232 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Runabout Churchill
Timeline: MD: 13, 0900 hours

Previously:

Elliot laughed, "Good because that's all I can tell you about that situation, but there is lots more to tell and we have a long time to talk. Let's hear something about you now."

And now:

"Well," she said, thinking about what to say, "Before I decided to become a diplomat, I wanted to be a teacher. I grew up in Kiev, on Earth, and loved the old folk and fairy tales. Slovakia has some wonderful old tales, including a very early tale of Sleeping Beauty. I even studied at the University of Kiev. But then I took a class on diplomacy and spent some time in Paris." She smiled. "I still love literature and history, but for now I choose to be a diplomat. Perhaps one day I'll go back to one of my other loves."

"It's always good to love more than one thing just in case you get tired of one you can always fall back on the other." Elliot smiled at her warmly. "Do you have someone significant in your life?"

"I hope so." She wasn't sure if she should admit as much, but he'd been upfront with her. "I have someone I've been out with several times. I've fallen in love with him, and I know he likes me, but he's still in love with his dead wife, so I don't know how it will work out." It would definitely work out, one way or another.

"Has he had enough time to grieve over her, when did he lose her?" Elliot wasn't trying to be nosy, he just wanted to see what was holding this man back from what was obviously the perfect woman.

"It's been over a year," she said. "He still loves her very much." She shrugged. "We'll see how this trip goes. He asked me to call him every night. I think getting away will be good for both of us." It would give her time to see if the relationship really was going somewhere, or if it was all in her head.

Elliot smiled, "Well you certainly shouldn't give up on him if you love him. I think it's hard to let go of someone you have loved for some time. He just may need a little help to move on." Elliot paused for a moment, "And you have to advantage, you are alive and with him. If he needs more time then you should give him that, but don't give up." Elliot figured it was probably time to change the subject. "So what's going on at the planet that we are going to?"

She didn't want to give up on Dallas, but at the same time, she didn't want to force her attentions on a man who still loved his wife. That wasn't fair to either of them. "It's a border dispute," she said. "There are three different governing bodies vying for the same geographic area. It was once thought uninhabitable and thus of no real value to anyone, but recently they found it contains a rich supply of lundrinium and now they all claim it. Since they can't agree on anything, they asked me to come in and help them come to some sort of agreement." She paused. "Although I think one of the three has no real claim. I've looked at what old records have been sent to me, but I'm sure there will ve more when I get there."

"Sounds like you are going to have a lot of...fun." Elliot teased. "I see it's a rather long trip, will we have time to stop at a planet along the way and stretch our legs?" Elliot didn't really like the idea of being cooped up in the shuttle for a week and hoped they had to time to stop somewhere and get out of the shuttle for some real air and sunshine. He would need a jog, swim or something to help him unwind a bit.

"We could if we make good time," she replied. "They're impatient for this to be over, but I don't see why we can't. We should pass a couple of m-class planets." She wouldn't mind stopping if she were honest. She pulled up the most recent star chart and looked for possible places to stop.

Conversation was sporadic over the next three days as they fell into a routine. When possible, Kiara scanned the passing planets to update the maps and because she was curious. Sometimes she read more on the three governments so she would have a better idea of what would be the best solution for all concerned.

They dropped out of warp halfway to their destination so they could stop at an uninhabited m-class planet for a break. It was while they were entering the system that the trouble started.

"I'm detecting another ship," Kiara said. "It wasn't there a few minutes ago."

"And by their approach, they seem to want something, try hailing them while I alter course," Elliot said.

Kiara nodded and opened a hail. When there was no answer, she tried again. And again. "No response."

An alarm went off on Elliot's console, "They're charging weapons!" Shields up, I'm beginning evasive maneuvers." The runabout began to zip zag and make court changes sporadically to avoid weapons fire. "Contact Starbase 109 and tell them.we are under attack and need assistance."

She sent out a distress call to the starbase, then opened a hail to the ship. "This is the Shuttlecraft Churchill on a diplomatic mission. Please stop your attack." She knew the chance of it working was slim, but she had to try.

The enemy ship began firing its forward disruptors....

Elliot was a great pilot and made it hard for the attackers to connect a shot, but there was only so much he could do. A shot finally connected and rocked the Runabout. A Runabout was larger than a shuttle but smaller than a Starship and had limited armament and shielding. Elliot continued to zig and zag, limiting the number of hits the attackers made, but the shields weakened with each impact. "We can't continue like this, but we might be able to lose them in the ionosphere." He looked to Kiara for approval.

"Yes. If they can't detect us, we might be able to hide from them. Look for a place to land, just in case." She would rather find an asteroid or planetoid rather than crash. But they would have to be careful so they didn't end up being more of a target than they already were.

"Heading towards the planet surface, maybe we'll get lucky and they can't follow," Elliot said, but before he could do anything the enemy got a lucky shot off. "We just lost impulse engines. Try to get them back up, I'll have to use thrusters to control our descent." It would take all of Elliot's concentration to try and control the speed in which the runabout descended towards the planet's surface.

Kiara switched stations and tried everything she could to get the impulse engines back online. She wasn't an engineer, but she knew a few basic tricks. When that failed, she grabbed a toolkit and went in the back to try to repair them.

"If all else fails, could we either try a hard landing with full power to the forward shields or transport to the planet?" she asked.

 

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